Yes, it has happened. This year, Cambodian jasmine rice was awarded
for the third time in a row as the “world’s best rice.” This happened yesterday during the 6th
The Rice Trade (TRT) World Rice Conference in Phnom Penh. The Conference is being hosted by the Kingdom
of Cambodia, 18-20 November 2014, dovetailing Cambodia’s 2nd Rice
Festival on the 18th held at the Hotel Sofitel. Fingers were crossed until today that the
award would go to Cambodia again as the World Rice Conference got
underway. Indeed, the Cambodian jasmine
rice has received the prestigious award for the third time this year, the
difference being that this year’s award is shared by Cambodia and Thailand.
In the last two years, Cambodian rice
has won the title of “The World’s Best Rice,” during the World Rice Conferences
in Bali, Indonesia in 2012 and in Hongkong in 2013.
The Cambodian jasmine (fragrant) rice
variety, Phka Rumduol, is a premium rice
which means it has extra long grains, strong natural scent, soft texture,
tender and fluffy when steamed and what millers and researchers refer to as
“tantalizing” aroma. The jasmine rice is
also called Cambodia’s white gold for very significant reasons. The name white gold means that rice is both
economically and culturally significant to the country. Cambodian rice being exported meets the very
stringent international inspection and certification requirements . This has enabled Cambodia to penetrate the
rice markets in the European Union, China, and the United States. In fact, more than 70 countries around the
world import Cambodian jasmine rice today, through some 77 Cambodian rice
traders.
New Dawn in Cambodian Rice Production
According to the Cambodian Organic
Agricultural Association (COrAA), increasingly, Cambodian rice farmers are
shifting to modern farming practices such as organic rice production. This is an amazing feat because only about
15% of rice fields in the country have irrigation, and Cambodian rice farmers
use little inputs. Many farmers have not
used farm chemicals, for example.
The fact is, the issues of food safety,
human nutrition, and environmental conservation are always part of the public
debate on food worldwide. This has
somehow pushed Cambodia to become more concerned about organic agriculture,
hence the creation of COrAA. The COrAA
now has established Cambodia’s Standards
for Organic Crop Production, whose aim is to “protect consumers against deception
in the market place and unsubstantiated product claims.” The tools that the COrAA uses in guaranteeing
that what is sold in the market is authentic organic rice is the Association’s
inspection and certification system. Therefore,
all rice products sold in the market today have been subjected to a “reliable
certification system” and rules for labeling organically produced rice. This, on top of the fact that the production
of Cambodia’s jasmine rice has gone through strict processes from seed selection
to cultivation and until milling. This
has been labeled by the International Financing Corporation as the “from farm
to fork” process.
In Cambodia, like in any other rice
producing or agriculture-oriented economy, more than half the population is dependent
on rice. The COrAA says about 60% of the
country’s population depends on rice cultivation, and about three-fourth (75%) of
Cambodia is arable land. Emphasis in the
production of Cambodian jasmine rice and producing rice through organic
agriculture seem to be the direction toward which Cambodian rice farmers are
headed. It is clear also that the aim of
the Kingdom in the area of rice production is to export rice to both the
developing and developed countries of the world.
Role of Financial Assistance
Helping Cambodia in transforming its
rice industry is the International Finance Corporation (IFC), part of the World
Bank Group. According to the IFC, it is
helping Cambodia in three major areas of the rice industry: improving the
quality of rice, improving milling efficiency, and boosting Cambodia’s rice
exports.
The IFC’s role in improving the
quality of rice in Cambodia has been impressive. According to the IFC, it has worked through
millers to introduce Phka Rumuduol to farmers and this has resulted in
increased yields. The IFC has also
helped sustain a weekly radio broadcast that has continually educated farmers
on key farming techniques as well as the benefits of producing improved
high-value fragrant rice seeds. In 2013,
IFC pointed out that it had helped more than 30,000 farmers in eight provinces
improve their knowledge and attitudes on farming techniques, helped some 8,000
farmers shift to planting fragrant rice seeds that has resulted in an increase
in average rice yields by 20%, and increasing revenues by an additional USD1.5
million.
Improving milling efficiency is
another area that IFC has focused its attention on in the process of helping improve rice production in Cambodia. Its target
is to enable at least 10 rice mills to receive international certification by
June 2015. Through IFC funding, hundreds
of rice millers are undergoing training in the improvement of operational
efficiency and milling quality. What may
have triggered this portion of the project is IFC’s observation that a large
proportion of Cambodia’s rough rice production is “informally exported” to
Thailand and Vietnam, where it is milled and further exported to other
countries as long-grained jasmine rice.
This has resulted in “tremendous loss of opportunity for Cambodian rice
millers and traders to add value and create employment,” according to the IFC.
In boosting Cambodia’s rice exports,,
the IFC has been working directly with the country’s rice exporters and
traders. Among the techniques in
improving rice exports include developing new niche markets especially those
that are willing to purchase premium fragrant rice at premium costs. The IFC has made sure that it collaborated
with both the public and private sectors of the rice industry in its efforts to
boost Cambodia’s rice export performance.
This has been influenced greatly by the issuance of Cambodia’s
Standards, by Royal Decree, in 2013. IFC
says, this has resulted in “quality assurances that have led to international
recognition and confidence from global buyers.”
IFC also continues to promote
Cambodian rice in the TRT World Rice Conferences, as well as in other avenues
in North America and the European Union.
Other efforts by the IFC in improving Cambodia’s rice industry include,
among other things, registration of Cambodia’s rice price quotations at the
Live Rice Index, where global price indices are available on weekly basis, and
publicly accessible. It is also
supporting the Cambodia Rice Federation to develop a national branding campaign
for Cambodia rice.
Ultimately, one of the measures of the
success of Cambodia’s rice production efforts is possibly its recognition worldwide
through the “World’s Best Rice” award.
Today, Cambodia has received such award three years in a row. This has potentially raised the bar of
expectation in terms of increased exportation of Cambodia’s jasmine rice.
